KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday directed the Additional IG Karachi and Additional IG Legal to submit a fresh report on the current status of pending trials into the cases pertaining to violent incidents of May 12, 2007 in Karachi.

A two-judge bench comprising Justice Iqbal Kalhoro and Justice Karim Khan Agha told them to furnish the report within two days and fixed the matter for Friday.

SHC Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M. Shaikh had recently constituted the special bench to hear and decide the petitions seeking judicial inquiry into the May 12 mayhem.

Taking up the matter on Wednesday, the bench took notice of the absence of two senior lawyers — Faisal Siddiqui and Shahab Sarki — who had been appointed amicus curiae to assist the court in the matter.

The police officials submitted a report which stated that 54 FIRs pertaining to incidents of violence on May 12, 2007 had been registered at different police stations.

However, the bench rejected the report and directed the AIG Karachi and AIG Legal to submit a fresh report mentioning the current status of the trials into cases pertaining to May 12 mayhem by June 22.

Initially, a larger bench of the high court was hearing the May 12 petitions.

However, the proceedings could not be concluded due to the imposition of a provisional constitution order (PCO) in November 2007 and later the matter was disposed of by another bench of the PCO, and now the matter has been pending since then for revisiting the court orders.

Last month, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had also sought the record of applications pending before the SHC regarding the May 12 mayhem.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2018